


friendship is Suffering

by rarmaster



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (tbh kind of just. quietly rejects a lot of the canon back cover set anyway. SORRY!!!!), ALL THE AVA/INVI TAGS JUST SO IT'S..... IN ALL OF THEM LOL, F/F, no spoilers for Back Cover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 18:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9455141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Telling Gula she had a crush on Invi was a mistake.





	

It started out fine enough. Ava told Gula about her crush, and after going _ohhh that was so obvious in hindsight,_ they laughed for around half an hour about how Invi was probably out of her league anyway. The thing about crushes Ava knew ( _hoped_ ) was that they were only temporary, so having Gula to laugh with about it until it faded was nice.

 

 

Then the teasing started.

 

 

“What do you think Invi looks like, under her mask?” Gula asked.

Ava went rigid where she sat at her desk, a heat rising to her cheeks. Gula was sitting in a chair somewhere behind her—he’d been upside down in it too, last Ava’d checked—keeping her company while she worked.

“You think she’s cute? She hides so much of her face it’s hard to tell…” Gula continued, completely aware he was distracting her from the glee in his tone. Ava fumed.

It was hard enough work, going over the reports on how her Union was doing from last week, and trying to set new lux quotas for everyone. It was even harder when she was thinking about Invi, and she did _not_ need Gula’s help to get distracted by…

(She had thought about this though, more than she’d like to admit. What color were Invi’s eyes? Her hair? Was it short, was it long? Ava only barely knew the shape of Invi’s chin, and the softness of her smile, both seen briefly, rarely, when Invi pulled her scarf down or forgot it entirely, and _goooddddddd—_ )

“Gula!” Ava whined, spinning around in her chair to face him.

Gula _was_ still upside down, and had been there long enough that his hood and mask both were falling off his face. His mask sat more on top of his head than covering it, meaning she could see his eyes. There was a glint in them, even as he innocently asked:

“What?”

Ava fumed a second more, then turned back to her desk.

“I’m _trying_ to work,” she said.

Gula laughed. Ava heard him shift, probably getting up, and when she glanced back at him, sure enough… He left his hood around his shoulders, and only adjusted his mask so it was sitting comfortably on _top_ of his head. Not that Ava hadn’t seen him without the mask before—he seemed not to care about their Master’s cautions for them. Or… about their Master’s cautions much at all.

“C’mon, Av,” he said, still chuckling. He leaned on the desk, getting his elbows all over her work. “There are _waaay_ too many kids in your Union to worry about them separately. Just set an average lux quota for all of ‘em, they’ll figure it out.”

“Is that what you do with _your_ Union?” Ava asked accusingly, knowing full well it probably was, seeing as he couldn’t seem to give two shits about his Union, either. They’d spent many hours arguing about how he had a _responsibility_ to these kids, but no matter what Ava said, she couldn’t sway him.

“It _works,_ ” Gula argued.

Ava sighed, and started jotting down average numbers on papers, deliberately not looking at Gula so she wouldn’t see his triumphant smile. At least she had an excuse, with how large her Union was.

“Anyway, you never answered my question,” Gula said, after a few moments.

Ava turned to send a skeptical glance at him, not that _he_ could see it, since her face was still covered. “What question?”

“Do you think Invi’s cute? Under the mask?”

Ava flushed a bright red, and hastily tugged the nose of her mask down, so the whole thing would cover her cheeks a little more. (It probably didn’t, _actually_ , but.)

“C’mooooooonn,” Gula pressed. She wasn’t looking at him, wouldn’t look at him—couldn’t, really, with her mask like this—but she knew he was grinning. She just knew it.

“Probably?” Ava squeaked. “Definitely???”

Gula laughed raucously, and Ava sunk down into her chair, quite sure she was going to die of embarrassment, literally right here.

 

 

Then it got worse.

Gula moved on from only bringing it up in private to, well, whenever he felt like it.

“Ava likes Invi, Invi, Invi~ Ava likes Invi, da dada dada,” Gula sang, as they walked through Daybreak Town.

He apparently was _extremely_ proud of this song he’d made up, and he only seemed to get louder with every second. Cheeks red, Ava tried to ignore him, but—

“Ava wants to kiss her, kiss her, kiss her~ Ava wants to—ow! _Fuck_.” He broke off with a swear, because Ava’d slammed his mask into his face to get him to shut up. He kept laughing, though, so Ava punched him in the shoulder.

“Seriously, Gula!”

“Aw, didn’t like my song?” he asked, straightening his mask.

“Your song _sucks_!”

Gula just laughed more, leaning back and putting his hands up in surrender. “It’s true, ain’t it?” She’d seen this expression often enough with and without the mask to know he was waggling his eyebrows at her, even though she couldn’t currently see it.

Ava didn’t want to admit it was true, because then Gula would know for certain she’d spent a non-zero amount of time thinking about kissing Invi. She didn’t think she could argue it _wasn’t_ either—at least not convincingly—so instead she put her hands on her hips and said in the harshest tone she could manage:

“What if someone had _heard_!?”

“C’mon, no one’s around!”

“So! What if someone _had_!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up!”

Ava wasn’t sure she believed him, especially not with him still smiling like that, but she turned and started walking again anyway. It was maybe thirty seconds before Gula started humming, that _same_ dang tune he’d been singing earlier. Ava wanted to deck him in the jaw, but maybe if she ignored him _this_ time…

(She was quite, _quite_ certain that Gula was going to be the death of her.)

 

 

If teasing her in public wasn’t bad enough, he started teasing her during Foreteller meetings, too. Not loudly. Not so anyone else could hear. But enough that she was red-faced and flustered for all the wrong reasons by the time the meeting was over each and every time, and soon enough _someone_ was going to notice what was up. Ira and Aced were both already giving her weird looks, and—she didn’t want to think about Invi.

Today, the meeting hadn’t been about anything important, so it had somehow descended into arguing about whose Chirithy was the cutest? Ava couldn’t remember how they got here, but she wasn’t complaining either. Aced was insisting _his_ was, while Ava argued all Chirithies were equally adorable, and it was nice to be acting in ways they really hadn’t, since… well, since the Master vanished. Gula wasn’t contributing, preferring to attempt balancing on the back two legs of his chair. Ira was fruitlessly trying to get them back to a separate topic, and Invi watched Aced and Ava argue, hiding smiles and quiet laughter behind a hand…

Ava trailed off mid-argument, turning to glance at Invi again. A heat rose to her cheeks as she realized herself, and Ava hastily tried to return to her argument. Except. She’d completely blanked on what she’d been saying five seconds ago.

Gula started humming.

Gula started humming that dumb song of his. It wasn’t even that loud, but it filled the silence Ava had left easily, and the tune crept into Ava’s skull. ( _Ava likes Invi, Invi, Invi—_ ) He wasn’t even singing, but before he had a chance to, Ava sent a small blast of Aero his way to knock his chair out from under him.

He collapsed onto the floor, and there was a moment of stunned silence before Gula just burst out laughing.

“That’s what you get for not sitting in your chair properly!” Ava quickly snapped at him, trying to laugh as well, make it seem natural and totally not her fault. She couldn’t read anyone’s faces, of course, but maybe that was for the best. This way, she could pretend they all bought it.

“Maybe if you’d tried sitting on the table _,_ Gula…” Aced said, slowly, a smile just barely contained from his voice.

“OH SHUT UP!” Gula wheezed between laughter.

So, maybe it _was_ fine, after all.

 

 

“If you keep this up, Invi’s gonna find out,” Ava complained, as she and Gula returned to her apartment after the meeting. Here was… really the only place she felt comfortable discussing this. The only one who could come in unannounced was her Chirithy, and they already knew about her crush, so…

Gula smiled lazily as he hoisted himself up onto Ava’s desk, choosing to sit on it instead of any of the other perfectly good furniture.

“Maybe that’s the point?” He said, slyly, raising his hands in a shrug.

“ _Gula!_ ”

She was starting to regret telling him.

After a second, though, Gula reached up, and tugged his mask off his face. He set it down on the desk next to him with care, then looked up at Ava.

“I think you should tell her,” he said. His tone was completely serious, and so was his face, so were his eyes.

Ava swallowed. Scoffed.

“Yeah, and make a complete fool of myself? No thanks.”

Gula rolled his eyes, shaking his head. A smile played on his lips, though. “Nah, c’mon, give Invi some credit. She’d let you down nice if it came to that. And, besides. Maybe she likes you.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Now Ava scowled. Why was he doing this? ( _It was a nice thought to entertain, but… she knew better._ )

“I thought we agreed I didn’t stand a chance,” Ava said, mouth twisted sourly.

“You were the one who said it, not me!” Gula protested. “I just agreed.” He scratched at his cheek. “Not really for any reason either, heh…”

“Gee _thanks_ , Gula.”

“C’mon, you should tell her!” Gula argued again, smiling wide, eyes still serious. He kicked his feet against the desk.

Ava stuck up her nose.

“Not a chance!”

Gula groaned, slumping over entirely.

 

 

Gula glanced over both his shoulders again, double-double checking to make sure Ava was nowhere around. Of course, there was no reason she _should_ be, seeing as this was the Leopardos district of the apartments, but… Better safe than sorry, for an operation like this. And, besides, he had to make sure no one else was around, either.

But outside of him and the two girls hanging out by the archway, there was no one here. Good.

“Hey, you two wanna help me out with something?” Gula asked, approaching the girls.

They both turned to him, looking surprised he was even addressing them. (Not unexpected, considering he rarely talked to _any_ of the kids in his union.) Then they turned to each other, exchanging glances. Finally the redhead shrugged.

“Uh, sure?” she said.

Gula smiled.

“Cool! You’re gonna help me trick Master Ava.”

“What!?” yelped the redhead’s black-haired friend, visibly taken aback.

The redhead scowled skeptically. “Isn’t that a little _mean_?”

Gula tapped at his chin, trying to decide what to say. There was no point telling them it was _technically_ for a good cause, so he went for the other best way to convince kids.

“How ‘bout for a thousand munny.”

The girls exchanged looks again. The redhead shrugged. So did her friend.

“Ok. Deal,” the redhead told him. She didn’t sound _thrilled,_ but she didn’t sound against the idea either.

“But this has gotta stay between the three of us, got it?”

The girls shared a quick look, this time, and then nodded in unison.

“Two thousand munny,” the black-haired one said.

Gula stared.

“What?”

“Two thousand munny, or this ain’t a secret!”

Gula raised finger, and opened his mouth, ready to protest, but. _But…_ It wasn’t like he _didn’t_ have the munny. And Ava would literally kill him if this didn’t work out like he wanted. So….

“Alright, fine,” Gula groaned. “Deal. Two thousand munny.”

The girls lit up with identical, eager grins.

“What do we gotta do?”

 

 

Ava was on a stroll through Daybreak Town, enjoying her afternoon. Up ahead, on a bridge over the canal, there was a pair of girls. They were both leaning over the railing, as if trying to touch the water below. She didn’t think they were from her Union, but maybe she should greet them anyway? No matter what, she had to walk past them.

“So, did you hear?” one girl said to the other.

Well, if they were talking, maybe she’d let them be. She wouldn’t want to interrupt.

“Hear what?” the other girl said.

“Master Ava’s got a _crush_.”

“Whaaaaaat? Where’d you hear that!”

Ava stopped dead in her tracks, face going very hot. She yanked the edges of her hood around her face, then turned on her heel and hurried back to her apartment, too embarrassed to be outside, too embarrassed to _live_.

 

 

“GULA!!” Ava screamed, as she slammed open the door to his apartment, having decided on the way that she wanted some answers out of him.

Gula—who’d been napping on his couch—bolted straight upright, frantically looking around. His mask was missing.

Ava stepped inside and waited until she slammed the door behind her before continuing, _just in case._ “Who did you tell!” she demanded, in as quiet of a voice as she could manage right now, which really wasn’t that quiet at all, considering the white-hot anger burning in her gut.

Gula squinted at her.

“What.”

Ava marched towards him, jabbing a finger in his face. “I was out _walking_ , and I just-so-happened to pass two girls talking _about my crush,”_ she seethed. “What the actual _fuck,_ Gula? Who did you tell?”

Realization dawned in Gula’s eyes. He pushed her finger away from him.

“Ohhhhhhhhh,” he said, drawing out the sound. “So I uh.” He sucked in his breath, grimacing hard. He turned away from her and scratched nervously at his chin. “I _may_ have accidentally let it slip to a few kids in my Union?”

Terror punched Ava in the gut.

“WHAT THE—”

She curled her hands into fists, raising them before her, thinking about maybe, _just maybe,_ punching Gula square in the nose. A couple hundred times, actually.

Gula hastily waved his hands through the air, leaning back and away from her.

“It was an accident!” he protested. “I didn’t mean to!”

Ava growled, but, he was probably telling the truth. That didn’t make her any less furious or mortified, though.

Seeing that Ava wasn’t going to punch him—at least not immediately—Gula passed one hand through the air, like swatting away an unimportant bug. “And, _relax_ ,” he said. “It was just a few kids! What’s the worst that can happen?”

Was he being serious?

“Gula.”

“Yeah?”

“Kids _gossip_.”

The easy expression on Gula’s face melted. Ava tightened her fists again. Maybe she _would_ punch him.

“Oh, shit,” Gula muttered. “They do, huh?”

Ava nodded.

Gula lowered his head, letting out a long breath.

“Sorry Ava,” he said.

That hung in the air a moment, and… Ava believed him. She plopped to the ground and buried her face in her hands.

“God, Gula, the whole _town_ probably knows by now,” she moaned. “And if _Invi_ doesn’t, she’s going to find out soon! Uggghhhh, how am I going to get out of this?”

“Maybe you should tell her.”

“What?”

“Invi.”

Ava looked up. Gula was shrugging, casually.

“I mean, if she’s gonna find out anyway, isn’t it better if she hears it from you?”

“I.” Realization hit Ava like a sledgehammer. “I can’t believe this.”

“Just sayin’,” Gula said, and he smiled, like he didn’t know.

But Ava knew. Ava knew _exactly_ what he’d done.

“I can’t believe you.”

Gula held out his hands a little further, shrugged a little harder. “Just sayin’!” he repeated, as Ava got to her feet with a swish of her robes, grinding her teeth. She jabbed her finger at Gula again, but she didn’t say anything, just stormed out the door. He was right, and she hated him for it, hated him for doing this to her.

But if Invi was going to find out, then Ava’d rather it was from her, and not from anyone else.

 

 

She asked Invi to meet her on the bridge by the clock tower. None of the kids would come here, since it was so close to the tower, and hopefully it was far enough away from the other Foretellers, too. Plus… it was the only place she could think of asking Invi to meet her that wouldn’t seem _really_ weird.

Ava crossed her arms and laid them on the railing, resting her chin in them. It was maybe only five, ten minutes later when Invi joined her. Invi hesitated a moment, but then she too leaned against the railing, to the right of Ava. Invi rest her elbows on the railing, upper-body leaning a little bit over the canal with how she held herself. She didn’t look at Ava, keeping her face straight towards the city.

“You… wanted to meet me here?” Invi asked.

Ava sighed, a little wistful, a little nervous. There was something about the cautious way Invi spoke the words that made her heart flutter.

“Yeah,” Ava answered. “There’s… something I have to tell you.”

She had to swallow around a knot in her throat, and there was a tight, excited feeling in her stomach. But she’d come too far to back out. Even if the threat of Invi finding out wasn’t as serious as it had felt an hour ago, (which, after having the time to think about it, Ava wasn’t so sure it was), she was committed. She was here. Invi was here. There was no turning back.

“What is it?” Invi pressed, and again there was something in her careful, curious tone that made Ava dizzy.

“Okay, so. Um.” Committed, she was, but that did not mean she was not nervous. Ava wet her lips, and tried not to think about how hot her cheeks felt. It was a good thing that at this angle, her mask would hide most of her blush from Invi. “I…? Sort of have a crush on you.”

Invi turned to her, startled, probably. (Not that Ava could tell, with the mask.)

“I. Oh,” Invi said.

Ava swallowed hard. She hoped the monotone of Invi’s voice was just surprise, and not anything else. But the seconds drew on, in silence.

“Um?” Ava began. She had a million regrets.

“Is this what Gula’s been teasing you about for the past month?” Invi said.

The question so took Ava by surprise that she straightened, turning her head towards Invi. “Uh. Wait, did you not _realize_?”

Invi hummed a short note to herself. “Guess I just didn’t put two and two together.”

Ava squinted, at that. Then she leaned a little towards Invi. “Did you have _any_ idea that I…?” she ventured, studying Invi carefully. She could not see anything other than the way Invi’s mask sat on her face, of course, but she studied anyway.

“No,” Invi answered, with a small shrug. She chewed at her lip.

Ava let out a sigh of relief, slumping back into her original position. She’d started to doubt that anyone actually knew, (because Gula wasn’t _that_ mean, and the girls hadn’t mentioned _who_ her crush was on), but it was a weight off her chest regardless.

Except… _Invi_ knew, now. That made Ava’s stomach twist. And, Invi _still_ hadn’t said anything about it. For all she was glad the entire town didn’t know about this, this entire moment was making Ava a little queasy.

“So…” Ava said, slowly. What else was she supposed to do, with Invi being silent? “You um, haven’t actually said anything about the bit where I kind of have a huge crush on you…”

Invi hesitated, like there was breath caught in her lungs.

“That’s… because…” She started lifting her scarf a little higher, to cover more of her face. “I, um… Maybe like you too?”

“Oh!”

A breathless, floating feeling welled up inside of Ava. All things considered, this had gone significantly better than she could have possibly hoped?

Ava opened her mouth, but she wasn’t sure there was anything more to say. Invi wouldn’t look at her, and had pulled her scarf all the way up so it almost met her mask. She’d done that with her right hand. Her left one was free. Her left hand was also the one closest to Ava.

Ava slowly reached over, and she looped her fingers through Invi’s.

 

 

(Maybe telling Gula _wasn’t_ a mistake.)

 


End file.
